ilocos

If there ever was a much awaited leg in my trip, this had to be it. For the longest time, I had wanted to visit Vigan – the Philippines’ own UNESCO World Heritage town. Vigan was a name that had captured my imagination. Like a town jumping out from the pages of a history book, Vigan is said to be the best example of a Spanish colonial town in Asia and I wanted to see for myself whether this is really the case. For some odd reason, I had my first exposure with these UNESCO World Heritage towns overseas, namely with Penang and Malacca in Malaysia and then with Luangprabang in Laos. Vigan was a destination that I had kept waiting for far too long.

From Laoag, we had set out early in the morning for Vigan, again stopping by some interesting sights along the way. But before heading south, we detoured east-ward towards Sarrat, which today is more known to be Ferdinand Marcos’ birthplace. The major landmark here is of course, the house where our ex-President was born. Though looking humble by today’s standards, it is certainly well-preserved. Parts of it were redone in brick while the second storey still retained the typical turn of the 20th century Filipino-style wooden panels. Admission here was free and we were treated to actual paraphernalia used by the former president as well as a peek into the actual room where he was born.

The second leg of my Ilocos trip took me from Laoag up to the the northernmost tip of the island of Luzon, stopping by the many interesting places in between. I had a different mindset about this leg. There is a strange and indescribable curiosity that one gets when going to a land’s end, as if one expects to find a pot of gold or the landscape dramatically changing. But I digress.

In all honesty, the entire landscape of Ilocos is quite different from what I am used to in Manila. There is a certain dryness in the land that accommodates what is probably the largest patch of “desert” in the Philippines, endless tobacco plantations as well as plenty of sun baked grass fields. This has translated to a landscape that is slightly different from the rest of the island and for this second leg of my Ilocos trip, I was able to visit some of these “quirks.”

One of the places I’d always wanted to visit in the Philippines was the Ilocos Region. Impressive churches, colonial towns, the legacy of what is undoubtedly the country’s most “famous” president and the hometown of many national heroes; it has what is probably the most concentrated number of heritage architecture in the country. Over the Christmas holidays, I had the opportunity to have a change of pace for this journey up north.

A popular way to get here from Manila is by car, where it can take up to 11 hours drive. I chose to go by air instead – cutting the travel time by more than 90%. I landed in Laoag, the main air gateway into the Ilocos Region on a fiery hot December afternoon. Laoag International Airport is designated as such due to charter flights that land here from time to time. In fact, Laoag is almost equally as near to Taiwan than it is to Manila so it is no surprise that a lot of tourists from the neighbor up north come here for the weekends.

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Hi, I'm Bino, a part-time wanderer and a Singapore travel blogger In this site, I share with you my top travel tips. Along the way, I also provide travel guides to compelling destinations, recommendations on awesome food to try and impressive hotels to stay! Read More…